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theinkandthepage's review against another edition
1.0
I am just.....really appalled. Like. Truly. I had high hopes for this book, because it truly did stand out due to the plot and the fact that the protagonist is male, but BOY was I disappointed. I think the biggest let down was the writing. It was basic, to say the least. Verdi's style lacked any flair. There was no creativity, and it certainly didn't spark much of my imagination. I understand it's "harder" for a female writer to write in the mind frame of a male, but that doesn't mean you should make the language so dull and simple that you can barely connect with the main character. It's almost as though I was looking at his world through his eyes but in black & white; you get the picture, but not the picture in depth.
As for the plot, I really thought there should have been more emphasis on his relationship with his baby, Hope. You don't really see much interaction between them, and he's constantly complaining about her, and he just isn't too likeable, in all honesty. I DO, however, really like his Mom. Her character could have been developed more, but she seems like this really cool mother that you get along with and share secrets with and who is always there for you. I like how she was disciplined with Ryden and made sure he was the one bringing up his daughter.
And last but not least...Joni.
From reading other reviews, I get the vibe that Joni is well liked. I mean, from all the characters, she has the most developed and built personality. She's outgoing and fun and badass, and she likes books. I mean, she's a great person, but again, I don't feel like I KNOW her. You know when you read a book and you feel as though you really, really understand a character? I don't understand her. I wish her wonderful, crazy family was seen more, and I wish we didn't throw in pointless back stories of gossip at her school just for the sake of it. It didn't really develop the plot or tell me much about Joni, either. It was just pretty pointless, really.
Overall, I wanted more from this book which I didn't get, and that's a lil annoying, but it's okay. Also, the bit where Alan references Love The Way You Lie by Rihanna and Eminem is so cringey, I had to shut the actual book for 5 whole minutes. Ugh. Never again.
As for the plot, I really thought there should have been more emphasis on his relationship with his baby, Hope. You don't really see much interaction between them, and he's constantly complaining about her, and he just isn't too likeable, in all honesty. I DO, however, really like his Mom. Her character could have been developed more, but she seems like this really cool mother that you get along with and share secrets with and who is always there for you. I like how she was disciplined with Ryden and made sure he was the one bringing up his daughter.
And last but not least...Joni.
From reading other reviews, I get the vibe that Joni is well liked. I mean, from all the characters, she has the most developed and built personality. She's outgoing and fun and badass, and she likes books. I mean, she's a great person, but again, I don't feel like I KNOW her. You know when you read a book and you feel as though you really, really understand a character? I don't understand her. I wish her wonderful, crazy family was seen more, and I wish we didn't throw in pointless back stories of gossip at her school just for the sake of it. It didn't really develop the plot or tell me much about Joni, either. It was just pretty pointless, really.
Overall, I wanted more from this book which I didn't get, and that's a lil annoying, but it's okay. Also, the bit where Alan references Love The Way You Lie by Rihanna and Eminem is so cringey, I had to shut the actual book for 5 whole minutes. Ugh. Never again.
ga8rielle's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
zaheerah's review against another edition
3.0
~ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~
Ryden is young boy struggling with the guilt that if he hadn't gotten his girlfriend pregnant, she wouldn't have stopped her chemotherapy - and would still be alive. But now Ryden is learning the challenges of a teen parent, and is on a journey of both forgiveness and acceptance, making this a fast-paced and heartfelt story. Certain plot moments and character choices really brought this book down for me.
Ryden is young boy struggling with the guilt that if he hadn't gotten his girlfriend pregnant, she wouldn't have stopped her chemotherapy - and would still be alive. But now Ryden is learning the challenges of a teen parent, and is on a journey of both forgiveness and acceptance, making this a fast-paced and heartfelt story. Certain plot moments and character choices really brought this book down for me.
alienor's review against another edition
2.0
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
"Why don’t I ever seem to know what the right thing is? I hate you, brain."
Warning : It's been really, really difficult for me to gather my thoughts about this book and I put a lot of me in this review, because I needed this personal insight to express what worked and didn't work for me in Ryden's story. Please feel free to disagree with my opinions.
[b:What You Left Behind|20933641|What You Left Behind|Jessica Verdi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410447751l/20933641._SX50_.jpg|40303603] was such a realistic, infuriating and heartbreaking young-adult story - I loved what I think the author was trying to say but I didn't enjoy the story.
✔ First of all, I loved that the issues weren't sugared, even if I can see how people will maybe feel uncomfortable with it : it deals with abortion, raising a child alone, loss and family bounds. I loved how realistic and daring it was : daring because sometimes I get the impression that authors don't dare to talk about this kind of subjects because they are, by essence, dividing people, especially in America (forgive me for this possible simplification : it's only how I perceive your public debate, because we just don't have this kind of debate in France - not on that level anyway).
[a:Jessica Verdi|6442339|Jessica Verdi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1466604103p2/6442339.jpg] has the guts to offer us a different kind of story, and for that, I'm grateful. Sometimes life is more complicated than right or wrong. It's my personal opinion, so take it or leave it, but I will never think that there is a right or a wrong answer when it comes to abortion. To me it's a matter of personal choice, and I will never deny the right to abort. And if there isn't any abortion here (obviously, because Ryden is a single father), yes, they thought about it. Yes, I understand why. Yes, for me this book is asking the right questions. Ryden is such a believable and realistic character : oh, no, he doesn't grow up right away, and the choices he makes are sometimes messed-up. Now, do you really think that people are always able to change in a heartbeat, at seventeen? I don't. So, yeah, even though he annoyed the crap out of me sometimes (more on this later), even though I wanted to shake him, I understood and cared for him at the beginning - until I didn't anymore.
What you need to know is that Meg's pregnancy killed her, and that she knew it was meant to happen. So, yeah, Ryden is mad and resentful - he still is, even though his daughter is here. So if you feel it could be a too big issue for you, don't read it, because Ryden is realistic and don't act like he's been touched by grace because he became a father. He's immature, SELFISH, heartbroken, somewhat delusional, and does mistake after mistake.
► I certainly didn't agree with all the choices Ryden made, especially when it comes to his little daughter.
OMG you can't possibly imagine the number of times I wanted to YELL at him TO GO TAKE CARE OF HIS DAUGHTER DAMMIT!!
He infuriated me. He maddened me. You want to know the truth? Call me a cold-hearted bitch, but in the end, I kind of hated him.
Spoiler
not as much as I hated Meg, but then, it's another story.But the fact is, I didn't need to agree with him, because it's not my story : It's Ryden's, and I accepted it as such. Here's a real coming of age story, where the main character evolves. Here's a character I can say, without doubt, that his flaws are fucking REALISTIC.
✘ Sadly, I didn't care about the romance.
Let's get this straight : if some readers found weird and even shocking that Ryden was able to fall in love with another girl seven months after his loss, I didn't, and that's not WHY I didn't like the romance.
I didn't find it shocking because I lived it. And like I've said to these judgmental people nearly seven years ago : don't try to understand how an heart can react, because you can't. Trust life.
This book is about closure, the one we don't always seek but that we need to move on, and when Ryden read Meg's journal it's what it felt like to me : searching closure, getting ripped of the stupid guilt we feel when we're the "survivor". I always wondered if people realized how much they keep the guilt alive when they acted as if it was abnormal, cold-hearted to start a new relationship after a loss. Trust me, we're already well aware of the hidden rules that say that you can't be in an healthy relationship less than a year after a loss. Oh, of course, people don't openly say that you can't be in a relationship. Nah. People say that it's for the best, that they're worried about you and your possible confusion (that people think that we can just mistake a love for another is beyond me).
But the truth is, they don't know shit. That's why I absolutely ADORED that [a:Jessica Verdi|6442339|Jessica Verdi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1466604103p2/6442339.jpg] dared to deal with such a secretly sensitive subject as love after loss, and yes, I wanted to ship Ryden and Joni hard. On this, I'm on the life team. Always and forever.
However, as much as I wanted to care about their relationship, sadly, the romance didn't work for me, mostly for 2 reasons :
1) We don't quite get enough Joni time to care about her as a character and in my opinion their love-story is only sketched here and stays on a superficial level.
2) The lying : It took way too much time to Ryden to tell the truth, and I didn't like the fact that their whole relationship was built around a LIE. And what lie! She doesn't even know that he has a daughter during most of the book! Of course it induced unnecessary drama, and I have a thing : I loathe unnecessary drama, especially when it's created by miscommunications. It drives me crazy.
✘ But what leads me to give this rating is the fact that I didn't enjoy my read. Trust me, I can handle infuriating and even evil characters (Jorg! I love you!) and the darkest parts of the human mind don't scare me (in books. They don't scare me in books) but I need to find a balance to enjoy a book, whether it's humor or endearment and I never managed to do this here. Oh, yes, I felt many emotions, I have to give it that : Anger, despair, sadness, annoyance, oh and did I say anger? Yeah? The only moments I felt something else where the passages with Ryden's mother (who rocks) and when Ryden was taking care of his daughter (so rare).
► I have to take into account that it took me ages to finish it, since I couldn't stop putting it on hold. I almost always read books in a day or two, so, yeah, not my usual reaction here. The truth is, I always got a feeling of uneasiness when I tried to resume it and it disturbed me. No, scratch that : I WAS SO FUCKING MAD IT HURT. Because REALLY? The day-care scene? It destroyed me. I tried and tried and tried and tried to find the empathy in me to understand Ryden's reactions and on some level I could, but putain de bordel de merde. There's a moment guy you have to GROW THE FUCK UP. It's hard, it hurts like hell, but you have to. I couldn't stop picturing all these kiddos in the room crying and how he relied on everyone to take HIS responsibilities and - I just couldn't handle it anymore. I had to stop. Again. Until I took the time to finish it and then, frankly? I hated the last 30%. I hated everything that went downhill, and at this point I was so much pissed that I hated the resolutions too. It was too late for me.
Of course what made me lost it is a spoiler (because I'm lucky like that) so I can't talk about it here - the only thing I can say, and it's my honest and strong opinion, is this : YES, sometimes to have a child is SELFISH. People keep telling me that NOT having a child is selfish but REALLY GUYS? I don't live in a fairytale. I work with children. I see children who are neglected every day. They suffer from it. Enough of this bullshit.
[RANT COMING]
Spoiler
That's why Meg's decision infuriated me so much. OMFG IT WAS SO STUPID AND SELFISH. UGH UGH UGH. A legacy? A LEGACY? She got pregnant on purpose when she knew she would die of her pregnancy to leave a fucking legacy?? I wanted to PUNCH the wall when I read this. It's just so stupid and selfish and everything that annoys and maddens the fuck out of me in human beings. A legacy? A little daughter who would never know her mother because she's dead?
► So, RATING?
A 3 stars rating would have meant that I liked it. I didn't, not really, and in the end I felt depressed and angry. But then, I'm still able to acknowledge the risks [a:Jessica Verdi|6442339|Jessica Verdi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1466604103p2/6442339.jpg] took, and Ryden's voice was really realistic, so, yeah, 2.5 it is, for now.
[Last Updated : July 2016]
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lara4eva's review against another edition
5.0
Well what can I say this book was not at all what I expected!! I read the synopsis and thought to my self it sounds a little bit like ‘the fault in our stars’ (TFIOS) I might like it!
Well I didn’t….
....I loved it! It was like TFIOS because it was about cancer however in my opinion that is where the similarities end.
Often I read books that skip between past and present and this makes me dislike them however this book was so well written the trips down memory lane flowed with the story line completely.
Unlike TFIOS the book felt like it had purpose and the storyline did not feel pointless.
I didn’t stop reading till I reached 43% and that was only as I needed to eat I was gripped I then finished the book in the 2nd sitting less than 6 hours from starting it. Over all an easy read. highly recommended.
Well I didn’t….
....I loved it! It was like TFIOS because it was about cancer however in my opinion that is where the similarities end.
Often I read books that skip between past and present and this makes me dislike them however this book was so well written the trips down memory lane flowed with the story line completely.
Unlike TFIOS the book felt like it had purpose and the storyline did not feel pointless.
I didn’t stop reading till I reached 43% and that was only as I needed to eat I was gripped I then finished the book in the 2nd sitting less than 6 hours from starting it. Over all an easy read. highly recommended.
always13lwwy's review against another edition
4.0
I actually quite liked this book. I really wanted to read a light romance book that gave me that wishful summer feeling but this book gave me a different kind of feeling. A feeling I didn't know I wanted from a book until I got it. There were times when I was not happy with the turn of events but that happens in every book and then it righted itself. I liked how Ryden finally realized he had what he wanted waiting for him, and I really liked how the story was written. It just had such a good vibe to it. I also really liked the idea of the notebooks. Although Meg did things that were annoying she still had good intentions and I liked that.
xokristim's review against another edition
5.0
(Thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Fire and NetGalley, I received an ebook copy of this book for free to review.)
“But this is not your typical “oops, got pregnant in high school, what do we do now?” scenario, like what happened to her. This is the much more rare “oops, I killed the love of my life by getting her pregnant in high School and ruined my life and the lives of all her family and friends in the process” situation.”
This book is about a seventeen year old boy (Ryden) who gets his girlfriend pregnant (Meg). I know what you are thinking “Oh another teen mom/dad type of book”. Let me stop you there. You quickly find out that Meg has cancer and because of her pregnancy she can’t receive her second round of chemo. Because of this she passes away while giving birth and leaves Ryden a single teen dad. The book takes place about six months after Meg’s passing and is very raw. Ryden is in a place where he blames himself for getting Meg pregnant thereby “killing” her. The story goes along to tell how he deals with being a single teen dad and his feeling of guilt over the whole situation, while also trying to get in to UCLA and have a semblance of a normal life.
I absolutely loved this book I thought the character development was great, and the fact that it was from a teenage boy’s perspective made it unlike many books I have read. It was very raw at times, which I feel added to the story greatly. I will admit it took me a few chapters to figure out how much I liked Ryden’s character because at first I was thinking “just another brooding character”, but when I tried to put myself in his shoes, I realized I really liked him. I thought the story flowed really well and also left a bit of mystery that kept me on my toes.
I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a fast paced “real” type of book.
“But this is not your typical “oops, got pregnant in high school, what do we do now?” scenario, like what happened to her. This is the much more rare “oops, I killed the love of my life by getting her pregnant in high School and ruined my life and the lives of all her family and friends in the process” situation.”
This book is about a seventeen year old boy (Ryden) who gets his girlfriend pregnant (Meg). I know what you are thinking “Oh another teen mom/dad type of book”. Let me stop you there. You quickly find out that Meg has cancer and because of her pregnancy she can’t receive her second round of chemo. Because of this she passes away while giving birth and leaves Ryden a single teen dad. The book takes place about six months after Meg’s passing and is very raw. Ryden is in a place where he blames himself for getting Meg pregnant thereby “killing” her. The story goes along to tell how he deals with being a single teen dad and his feeling of guilt over the whole situation, while also trying to get in to UCLA and have a semblance of a normal life.
I absolutely loved this book I thought the character development was great, and the fact that it was from a teenage boy’s perspective made it unlike many books I have read. It was very raw at times, which I feel added to the story greatly. I will admit it took me a few chapters to figure out how much I liked Ryden’s character because at first I was thinking “just another brooding character”, but when I tried to put myself in his shoes, I realized I really liked him. I thought the story flowed really well and also left a bit of mystery that kept me on my toes.
I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a fast paced “real” type of book.
kimmybmom04's review against another edition
5.0
What a fantastic book! I received an ARC copy from Sourcebook.
First, the book grabbed my attention from the very beginning and I actually stayed up until 4am finishing it. I simply couldn't find a stopping point.
I love that the story is told from a 17 year old young man's point of view. You get the raw emotions of struggling to step up and be a dad in the midst of terrible circumstances I love the relationship between Ryden and his mother. It is very refreshing to see a positive parental relationship between a single mom and her son. Truly a well told story!
First, the book grabbed my attention from the very beginning and I actually stayed up until 4am finishing it. I simply couldn't find a stopping point.
I love that the story is told from a 17 year old young man's point of view. You get the raw emotions of struggling to step up and be a dad in the midst of terrible circumstances I love the relationship between Ryden and his mother. It is very refreshing to see a positive parental relationship between a single mom and her son. Truly a well told story!
mayris88's review against another edition
4.0
I'm really confused.
I mean at the end I really liked it and everything made sense but...
The first half of the book I hated the kid ya know? He was really immature and trying to go back to his "old life" and I wanted to kick his ass but I remembered that he is a 17 year old so yes, of course he wanted to be normal, to be just a kid, to have fun and maybe forget for a little while that he was a single father.
Anyway like I said, at the end I really did enjoyed it (and I teared up a bit), it feels like I learned something, don't know what but I feel really good.
This book left me feeling content and satisfied, maybe it's weird but there you go.
I mean at the end I really liked it and everything made sense but...
The first half of the book I hated the kid ya know? He was really immature and trying to go back to his "old life" and I wanted to kick his ass but I remembered that he is a 17 year old so yes, of course he wanted to be normal, to be just a kid, to have fun and maybe forget for a little while that he was a single father.
Anyway like I said, at the end I really did enjoyed it (and I teared up a bit), it feels like I learned something, don't know what but I feel really good.
This book left me feeling content and satisfied, maybe it's weird but there you go.